Air humidifier and filter



Nov. 21, 1950 H. s. MULHOLLEN 2,530,535

AIR HUMIDIFIER AND FILTER Filed Sept. 25, 1948 I 0 I m l/;/ a

Patented Nov. 21; 1950 AIR'HUMIDI'FIER AND'FILTER Y Harold S.'Mu-lhollen, Pasadena, Calif l, assignor to Essick ManufacturingCompany',. Lo's .Angeles, calif acorporation of CaliforniaApplication-September 25, 1948,- seminar 51,182

and it is an object of the invention to provide a simple, practical,improved. pack for passing airyand acting either to. merelyclea'n theair or to. clean and facilitate cooling of the. air by eyaporation ofWater applied. to the pack. 1 Ventilating and cooling. systems commonlyinclude fans or blowers serving to circulate air and itziscommon toprovide packs or cells through Whichzthe: air.- must be circulatedeither to merely clean; the air or to .cl'eanzand also cool; the air byreason of the evaporation of water. Packs of the characterreferred tomay with ordinary construction; be madereasonably effective orefiicie'ntin the removal of dust-or large air-borne bodies or;particles, even including objects such. asbees, largeaflies, etc.In-practice, however, packs such' as are ordinarily used, are made-withfront-and ba'ck porous cover sheets which cone fine a.loose body. ofmaterial and these sheets are: of-jlike. character" When the coversheets are made fine enough to check the passageof insects. thefrontsheet quicklybuilds up a body of dust. and the efficiency of theWhole pack .is materially lowered. Where; water is applied to the packsto evaporate and thus causethedesired cooling effect, considerabledifficulty isexperience.d,with the usual pack construction, sincethemoist condition of the pack isattractive to ormconduciveto the breedingof: mosquitoes and consequently, if the cover sheets of suchpacks aremade coarse enough sothey do not clog too fast then mos'quitoesbecome-bothersome.

It;.is' a generalobject' of this invention toprovidea packoi the generalcharacter referredto which is of such form and construction-astoefliciently pass air, effectively trap or catch dust or, like foreignmatter borne by the air, and which refiectively checks the passage ofparticles oriobject sasuch as are notchecked by an ordinary pack, forexample, insects, and particularly gnats, flies and mosquitoes. f

A- furtherobject of the invention isto-provide apack ofthe generalcharacter referred to which has the action hereinaboveset forth without.requiring parts, elements, or devices in addition to, those. ordinarilyemployed. in packs of the" general class ref erredxto. The pack ofthe-present invention involves merely a filler which may be a body of:excelsior orjthe like, and a retaining envelopeor holder. which supportsthe filler.

' Azfurther obj ect ofithisiinvention is to provide a-packof the.general character. referred-to whichis:-such that. iti camba adapted? toanaoldinaryventilating or cooling system of. the" character referred toand'. which is easily manufactured making it economical and-commerciallypractical. "The various objects and features .of myirrventi'onwill-be-fully understood from the follow ing detaileddescriptionwof atypical" preferred form and applicationof my invention;through out which description referenceismade to the accompanyingdrawingsflnwhichf r Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a simple; typicaltype of evaporative cooleremb'odying apack' provided by thepresent-invention; partsbein'g broken away to show the details ofconstruction. Fi'g: 2" is an enlarged edge view of the pack-in which the.l'ower'portion of thepack' is shown-iii eleva= tionwhile-theupperportion is shown :in section; the sectionbeing taken inthe general direction indicated by line"2-2 on Fig; 1. Fig; Bis afvie'wshowing a portion of the front sheet .oiF-"the en:- velope of the pack;taken in the general-direction indicated by line 3-:3-- on Fig. 2, and"Fig. 4 is-a view showing a portion of the rear sheet of the" pack,beinga view' taken in the directionrindicated byline -4- 4"on Fig';2. rv

The pack provided K by "the present invention-Lisuseful; generally, inventilatingor cooling sys' terns or: in apparatus incorporatedinsuchsys: tems; However, sinceit" is particularly practical as appliedto evaporative'coolersitis illustrated in such-a coolerandwillbe-described as applied tosuch; a construction,- it being understoodthatmodifications or variationsof the inventionmay occur in the courseofapplying. it"toothersituas. tions. K The particularapparatus?illustrated in the drawings is an evaporative cooler"involving: a box-like case A supporting a pack B embodying the presentinvention and carrying a.blowen'C' and a liquid circulatori D,. One-walllotoflthe case A will' be referr'edto asEthe front wall of the: caseand, it is provided with a plurality of louvers ll admitting-airinto-the case. -Thez pack" B provided by the present invention. islocated in the case immediately behind the. front wall- H} and it may bemounted in: any suitable man-- discharge opening M in therear wall-l5 ofthe case. It is to be understood-that therblower C' mayxin'cludesuitable propelling or" driving" means such-- as a motor Miand itmaybe-charm suitable type and may be mounted in the case in any suitablemanner.

The liquid circulating means D may be any suitable structure serving tosupply water to the pack B so that it evaporates therefrom as air isdrawn through the pack. The necessary water may be supplied from a waterline connected to the structure or, as illustrated, a pump may bemounted to receive water caught by the bottom 2| of the case A and amotor '22 may drive the pump so that the water received by the pump isdelivered through a supply pipe 24 to a distributing trough 25 locatedabove the pack. The trough is so located and constructed as todistribute the water over the pack in a manner to effectively wet theentire pack.

The pack provided by the present invention includes, primarily, a bodyor filler 33 of suitalarge insects, etc.

ble material and an envelope or holder 3| cardesired material ormaterials, may be of various forms or coarseness and may be packed orcompressed to any desired degree, all as circumstances may require.

The envelope or holder 3| for the body 39 is characterized by front andrear sheets 35 and 36,

respectively, which are at opposite sides of the Q body 2!] and confinethe body, holding it in the desired form or shape. In the particularcase illustrated the pack B is a fiat structure substantiallyrectangular in shape and in such case the sheets 35 and 36 are fiatsheets parallel with each other and spaced apart far enough toaccommodate the filler or body 30. The sheets 35 and 36 may be held orsecured in the desired relationship through any suitable means orconstruction, it being preferred that they be joined to the edges ormarginal portions of the pack and, in practice, it is advantageous toprovide the edge portions of the sheets 35 and 36 with inwardly turnedportions 33 provided where they meet with flanges 39 which may besecured together by suitable fasteners 40. The fasteners may be clips,stitching, or other structure serving to effectively join the flanges39.

In accordance with the present invention the sheets 35 and 36 are poroussheets serving to effectively pass the desired fiow of air while beingstrong enough to suitably support or confine the filler 30. It will beapparent that the sheets 35 and 36 may be advantageously formed of clothmade of any suitable material and having any suitable weave or mesh.Since structures of the character under consideration are perishable andmust be replaced from time to time it is preferred that the sheets 35and 35 be formed of fabric, as for instance, a cotton fabric, and thatthe weave be a simple type of mesh such as is employed in netting ormeshes employed in ourtaining, cheese cloth, mosquito netting, etc.

It is a feature of the present invention that the sheets 35 and 36 bedifferentiated by the fact that the front sheet 35 is of what I willrefer to as a coarse or open mesh, while the back sheet 35 is of fine orclose mesh. In referring to the front sheet 35 as being of coarse mesh 1mean that it is so open or porous as to freely admit air to be handledby the pack and may even pass foreign matter, including dust, and anyordinary air borne objects including insects such as flies, gnats,mosquitoes, etc. By making the front sheet 35 of coarse mesh it does notbecome clogged but freely passes all air borne material.

The air passed by the coarse or porous front sheet 35 must find its waythrough the body or pad of excelsior immediately behind the front sheetand the body 30, being of the character above described, effectivelytraps or catches most ordinary particles, as for instance, dust, any Itis significant to observe, however, that the excelsior 30, being arather thick pad, as distinguished from a thin sheet, does not catch oraccumulate foreign matter at any one zone or spot, but rather, thecaught material becomes distributed throughout the pad and consequently,the effective life of the pad is not materially impaired, even thoughthe pad may catch and hold a substantial amount of material.

The back or rear sheet 38, which is very fine or closely meshed ascompared to the front sheet 35, is open or loose enough to effectivelypass the desired air, yet at the same time it is so fine or closelymeshed as to positively check or prevent the passage of material orobjects such as most insects, and particularly the undesirable insectssuch as flies, gnats, mosquitoes, etc. In employing the term insects Imean to include any bodies, objects or materials such as are subject tobeing passed by ordinary packs of the type referred to and which areundesirable, and in referring to the front sheet of the pack as beingcoarse, I mean that it is of such large or loose mesh as to freely passair and have little or no filtering or checking effect upon the materialdesired to be checked by the pack. In referring to the rear sheet 35 ofthe envelope as fine, or close meshed, I mean to define a sheet whichfreely passes air but at the same time is effective in checking thepassage of bugs and insects, and particularly insects such as flies,gnats, mosquitoes, beetles, etc.

Having described only a typical preferred form and application of myinvention, I do not wish to be limited or restricted to the specificdetails herein set forth, but wish to reserve to myself any variationsor modifications that may appear to those skilled in the art and fallwithin the scope of the following claims.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A pad for an evaporative cooler in which a case carries an aircirculator and a water distributor including, a single flat body ofexcelsior for vertical disposition in the case where it receives waterat its upper edge and conditions air passing through it from one of itssides to the other, and an envelope of porous moisture-retaining fabricconfining the body and including a sheet at one side of the body forpassage of air into the body and a sheet at the other side of the bodyfor exhaust of air from the body, the sheets being joined together atthe edges of the body, the last mentioned sheet being of substantiallyfiner mesh than the first mentioned sheet to check the passage ofairborne matter and insects from the pad.

2. A pad for an evaporative cooler in which a case carries an aircirculator and a water distributor including, a single flat body ofexcelsior for vertical mounting in the case to receive water at itsupper edge and to condition air passing REFERENCES CITED The followingreferences are of record in the file of this patent:

Number Number UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Libbey Apr. 24, 1888Church et a1. Nov. 22, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great BritainDec. 23, 1936 'Great Britain Oct. 20, 1937 Norway Aug. 15, 1938

